Lai’s Democratic Progressive party wins unprecedented third term in result likely to anger China

Taiwan has voted for Lai Ching-te to be its next president, ushering in a historic third term in power for the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party (DPP), in a result that will anger Beijing and heighten tensions across the Taiwan strait.

The victory of Lai, who since 2020 had served as vice-president to Tsai Ing-wen, marks the continuation of a government that promoted a sovereign Taiwan and a national identity separate to China, and oversaw some of the deepest cross-strait tensions in decades as Beijing pushed towards its goal of annexation.

Beijing has criticised frontrunner Lai Ching-te as a ‘separatist’ as it seeks to intimidate self-ruling island

Vote counting got under way on Saturday in Taiwan’s presidential election, held under the shadow of threats from China that choosing a leader it disapproves of could set the stage for war on the self-ruled island.

Beijing criticised frontrunner Lai Ching-te, the current vice-president, as a dangerous “separatist” in the days leading up to the poll and, on the eve of the vote, its defence ministry vowed to “crush” any Taiwanese independence attempts.

Mistranslation of ‘satellite’ to ‘missile’ in message causes alarm and confusion days before presidential election

A Chinese satellite launch has triggered a nationwide emergency alert in Taiwan days before its presidential election, prompting alarm and confusion as the English portion of the message erroneously translated satellite to “missile”.

The bilingual air raid alert blasted over loudspeakers and was sent to every mobile phone in Taiwan shortly after 3pm local time (0700 GMT), warning people to “be aware”. The message said in Chinese that China had launched a satellite at 3.04pm and it had flown over the southern part of Taiwan. The English portion said “[air raid alert] missile flyover Taiwan airspace”.